


Billy the Kid Rides Again: A Power Rangers Story

by Cooper_City



Category: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Genre: Drabble, Gen, History, Nostalgia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-15
Updated: 2014-03-15
Packaged: 2018-01-15 19:38:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1316791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cooper_City/pseuds/Cooper_City
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a little tribute I came up with for my favorite Power Ranger, Billy Cranston.  Not really a story, not anything new, just trying to give a look at some canon from a different perspective.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Billy the Kid Rides Again: A Power Rangers Story

**Author's Note:**

> Billy was always my favorite Ranger, possibly the one character from my childhood who I most closely identified with, and the more I discover about actor David Yost the more I appreciate the man who portrayed him. My hope is that this piece manages to respectfully, albeit with some poetic license, catch the intersection between the stories of the character and the actor.

You know, I was there at the beginning. The day of the dumpster. I was there. I was terrified, I felt more like a liability than anything, but I was there. And I knew it meant that I had to do something so that the next time I wouldn't be terrified. So I worked at it.

I was never a fighter until that day. Until the Putties attacked us. But something clicked in me. Something clicked in all of us, but I think for me it was different. The rest of the guys, yeah, they were teenagers with attitude, but I was just a regular teenager. No attitude. For me it wasn't just a call to arms, it was a siren saying that I needed to change the very way I interacted with the world. I couldn't just be an observer, I couldn't just be an analyst. I had to act. I was going to be counted upon to act.

And so I learned to fight. I trained my body. At one point, my biceps were the biggest on the team. I was never the leader, that was never who I was, but when Zack, Jason, and Trini went to Switzerland, I knew I had to step up. The new guys were good, but they didn't have the experience that I had. Even though Tommy and Rocky were technically in charge, I knew that there would be times when anyone on the team, even Zordon and Alpha, especially Zordon and Alpha, could look specifically to me for support. Whether it was Rocky and Aisha and Adam looking for advice, or Tommy and Kimberly just needing some perspective from someone who'd been with them since day one, or something technical in the command center, in many ways I was the center of the team in those days.

And then we were turned into children.

It was my biggest triumph and my biggest failure. I'd broken the spell. I had actually countered Master Vile's magic. But I couldn't protect he ninja coins, couldn't protect the regenerator, and so I had let down my friends. I would never morph again.

But that didn't mean I couldn't help. I moved into the Command Center, served as Alpha's backup. Then Alpha served as my backup. I build new Zords, I made upgrades, I threw myself into everything I could do in order to support the team. 

I talked to Rocky a lot during that time. It's not something that anyone said out loud, but when I was basically demoted out of Rangerhood, he was basically demoted down to my old role. We really weren't anything alike, but we bonded over what it was like to be the Blue Ranger, and what it was like to be passed over.

Then, one day, Trey of Triforia could no longer hold the mantle of Gold Ranger. The whole team turned to me, and I was ready to take his place, I was ready to be a Ranger again.

But I couldn't. Because of that stupid regenerator, because I was an adult, I was there when the Command Center exploded. I had absorbed too much negative proton energy, and the Gold Ranger's powers wouldn't accept me.

Tommy found Jason again, and he became the Gold Ranger, but that was the beginning of the end for me. Once I started looking into the long-term effects that the explosion and the regenerator had had on me, I discovered that I was aging far too rapidly. I kept up my responsibilities in the Command Center, but I was also looking for a solution. And then one appeared on Aquitar.

I almost don't remember the day I left Earth. Like it was an event that didn't really happen, just a dream that someone else went through in my place. And I struggled at first. I didn't know what to do about my condition, I took the advice of those around me both good and bad. Eventually I found something that worked for me, and I started loving my life on Aquitar.

You know, I used to be afraid of fish. Now I'm married to one.

But recently, things have changed. Tommy has reached out to me. And I just have to hear him out. I owe it to him for those years together. There's just this voice, in the back of my head, calling.

It's Morphin' Time.

I don't even know what's going on with the team anymore. Zordon's gone, Alpha's gone. The team's switched over so many times since I came to Aquitar. But apparently I'm still wanted. Still valued. And with years of Aquitian therapy behind me, I might even be able to fight again.

It's Morphin' Time.

It's not me anymore. I'm a new person. I have my own responsibilities and my own needs. I know that the Power Rangers don't need me anymore. And I don't really need the Power Rangers anymore either. But when I know that I'm getting a sincere invitation, it's hard to say no. 

It's Morphin' Time.

Tommy won't tell me what's really going on. But I trust him. Something big is happening on the horizon, and I don't know if I'm meant to be a part of it, but I will be if I'm asked to. Because no matter what happens, no matter how the die is cast, I'm already a part of something big. My life today would be so different if I hadn't been able to rise to the challenge of being a Ranger, if Alpha and Zordon had picked some other kid that day. How many times have I helped save the world?

What's one more, give or take?


End file.
